Abortion

Abortion Controversy: Pro-Life or Pro-Choice?

It seems that Americans want to oppose abortion and yet keep it legal. The public debate on this subject has reached an impasse, yet the issue continues to be debated (Kavanaugh 1997). While there is little change in public opinion, it does not mean that the abortion issue is going to lessen in intensity any time soon. There are many reasons for this, but the abortion issue is not going to recede in intensity any time in the near future. While there are many reasons for this, the most important might be simply that "the majority of Americans morally disapprove of the majority of abortions currently performed," as University of Virginia sociologist James Hunter concludes in his path-breaking 1994 book, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching Jar Democracy in America's Culture Wars. Hunter's analysis is based on the 1991 Gallup poll "Abortion and Moral Beliefs," the most thorough survey of American attitudes toward abortion yet conducted. The Gallup study found that seventy-seven percent of Americans believe that abortion is at least the "taking of human life" (28 percent), if not "murder" itself (49 percent). Other polls confirm these findings. And yet, while many Americans--perhaps sixty percent in the middle--see legalized abortion as an evil, they see it as ‘necessary.’ (Caldwell 1999).

Why then, if sixty percent of Americans see abortion as evil, is it thought to be necessary? Less than thirty percent believe abortion is acceptable in the first three months of pregnancy if the pregnancy would require a teenager to drop out of school. So the reasoning is not because American sees abortion as a way to secure equal opportunities for women. It is also seen that less than twenty percent support abortion in the first three months of pregnancy if the pregnancy would interrupt a woman’s career. Studies show there are many Americans that may see abortion as "necessary" to avert "the back alley." In this sense, the...